Instructions: I use a pizza stone (actually unglazed ceramic tiles - a cheap pizza stone) and preheat the oven to 500 degrees for at least a half hour. I bake the bread directly on the stone, transferring it with a pizza peel. Before I put the bread in the oven, I spray the oven with water and then I spray it 2 or 3 more times during the first five minutes. After 5 minutes, I turn the heat down to 450 degrees and dont open the oven for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I move the loaves around to get more even browning and bake for 15 or 20 minutes more. (I usually bake 2 2-pound loaves at a time.) I check the internal temperature of the loaves with an instant read thermometer. It should be between 210 and 220 degrees. This should give you a hard crust. This works very well with bread that has no sugar or only a trace amount. Ive tried baking some that have more sweetener and the bread has tasted good, but the crust turns pretty black at that temperature.

To improve the flavor of your bread, try retarding it in the refrigerator over night. After it is shaped, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise in the fridge over night. In the morning, take it out, let it finish rising and bake. You may find that you need to cut down on the yeast some. This works especially well with sourdoughs because they tend to rise slowly. Sometimes my "french" bread rises too much overnight.

If you dont have refrigerator space for shaped loaves, you can give the dough a cold rise in a plastic bag and shape it the next day and let it rise again. Another way to improve the flavor is to save a cup of dough and use it the next time you make bread. You can keep it for 2 or 3 days in the refrigerator or freeze it if you arent making bread that often. When you make your next dough, you mix it as normal and then add the old dough about half way through the kneading. A sponge or poolish is another method which will improve the flavor. Basically, anything you can do to give the yeast longer to work will make your bread taste a little better.

NOTES : Another thing you might try is to check out the "artisan bread flours"

offered by King Arthur. They have products called "European-Style Artisan Bread Flour," "French-Style Flour," and "Italian-Style Flour."

I have found that the simpler the dough, the better the bread, so bear that in mind, too! [Ruth Provance (prmtprovance@erols.com)]

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